Yo! MTV Raps Tone Loc [Tone-Loc] collector card, 1991

This Tone-Loc card is one of a series of collector cards featuring hip-hop artists published by Yo! MTV Raps in 1991. The front of the cards feature a promotional photo of an artist and the back lists personal statistics. According to this card, Tone-Loc had been a semi-professional boxer who had reached the Olympic Trials in the 1980s. He changed his name from Tony Smith to Tone-Loc:  Tone, short for Tony and Loc, short for loco, or “crazy.”

Producing such promotional items represented a shift of attention for MTV, which did not air hip-hop videos until 1986, when “Walk This Way,” Run D.M.C.’s collaboration with Aerosmith, became a breakthrough hit.  It took two more years for Yo! MTV Raps, a specialty hip-hop program, to become a reality—just in time to promote Tone-Loc’s huge hits in 1989, “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina.”

Tone-Loc (Anthony Terrell Smith, b. 1966), is a rapper and actor from Los Angeles, California, wore these sunglasses in numerous photographs and video appearances throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.  In 1989 he released the second highest selling single in US history with “Wild Thing” and Loc-ed After Dark became the first No. 1 album by an African American rapper. Like “Wild Thing,” a second smash single, “Funky Cold Medina,” also featured humorous lyrics backed by a rock-influenced sound.  Even though the former gang member is best known for these two pop crossover hits, the hardcore rap style of  “Next Episode” and “Don’t Get Close” actually dominate Tone-Loc’s repertoire.  Following his 1991 album Cool Hand Loc, he concentrated on an acting career, appearing in the movies Poetic Justice, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Heat, and in such TV shows as Touched by an Angel and Roc. Due to health reasons Tone-Loc wears his signature sunglasses at every performance to help reduce the likelihood of a seizure.